Jordan’s digital competitiveness requires boost — global ranking

AMMAN —  Jordan has achieved a high ranking in various sub-indicators despite dropping five places overall from 2018 in a digital competitiveness ranking that measures nations’ ability and preparedness to implement digital technology.

The sub-indicators notably include the categories of knowledge and future readiness, according to the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, which was released on Wednesday by the IMD’s research centre in Switzerland. 

The World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR) 2019 is the institute’s third edition. It sees digital technology "as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government and wider society", according to a statement issued by the organisation.

The WDCR uses three main factors to evaluate an economy's digital competitiveness: The ability of the nation to understand and learn new technologies (knowledge); its capacity for innovation in digital development (technology) and its preparedness for coming developments (future readiness), the statement read. Countries are then ordered from the most to the least competitive according to this measurement, notes the IMD website. 

This year, the IMD evaluated 63 nations, most of them with a high- or middle-level income per capita, and four of which —  Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — are in the region.

Jordan's overall performance saw a drop from 45th in 2018 to 50th in 2019, a change attributed to its decline in technology (from 48th to 53rd) and future readiness (from 41st to 52nd) indicators, Senior Economist at IMD José Caballero said in an e-mail interview with The Jordan Times on Wednesday. 

"Specifically, [Jordan's] performance was affected by negative perceptions of business managers about availability of digital skills in the workforce," the economist noted. He added that lack of funding and legislative support for technological development also played a role in the decline.

However, Caballero stated that Jordan "performed well in attracting foreign tertiary level students [coming in 19th in this factor’s ranking], in the availability of graduates in scientific fields [18th] and in several indicators related to the agility of firms".

Furthermore, a report on Jordan's 2019 ranking published by the IMD on Wednesday shows that Jordan ranks 5th globally in its use of big data and analytics, 16th in international experience and 19th in cyber security.

In terms of next steps to boost its digital competitiveness, Jordan should focus on making research and development investments in innovation in both the private and the public spheres, according to Caballero. It should also seek to implement "e-government solutions to improve citizen's access to information, public services and participation in public decision-making".  

The top global performer in the 2019 digital competitiveness index was the US, up from third place in 2018, according to the WDCR statement. Second and third place were secured by Singapore and Sweden, respectively. 

Key factors contributing to the success of top countries included generation of knowledge, fostering an environment conducive to new technologies and a "readiness to adopt innovation", the statement read. 

As for the region, the statement continued, the UAE "climbed five places thanks to improvements in capital availability and supportive regulation for technology development", to score 12th worldwide. Qatar and Saudi Arabia placed 31st and 39th, respectively.